A place to discuss genealogy and history related resources for Thames, New Zealand.
A place for Thamesites, to visit and remember The Thames of old, the golden town that many of our ancestors called home.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Thames (NZ) Hotels update

A review of the information on Thames Hotels has been completed, with the discovery of yet more hotels!! The licensing committee minutes that were published in the newspapers make interesting reading, with many applications refused. Obviously everyone wanted to own a hotel, the gold was gone in many cases - so a career in the hotel business possibly seemed a great alternative!

At The Treasury are 2 new folders devoted to hotel/publican news via the Licensing Committee meeting reports that appeared in the 'Daily Southern Cross' and 'Evening/Thames Star' Newspapers. These have been indexed and cover hotels all over the peninsula, not just Thames.

To accompany this new folders are being established that have an updated summary for each hotel (too many pages to go online), and a space where future articles/news about the hotels can be filed.Do you have any family connection to a Hotel in Thames? - if so I would love to hear from you. Particularly from the 1920 period to present day, so that publicans names can be added. Any photos? Please let me know or leave at The Treasury, Thames.

The Crown Hotel in Queen Street, Grahamstown c1870s
(Near top of pic, just right of centre, white, tallest building - click to enlarge)

The CROWN HOTEL (pictured above) opened c1868 and closed probably around 1878, when the property was put up for auction and sold for 75 Pounds. Early publicans were: David Barty: Licence 30/6/1869 (License to 10 o'clock); John Harris: 1869-1872; J Cook: Years include 1873.